Sun Bleached
by Kaleyanne
Summary: Summer vacation. The cousins are visiting and the sun is shining. But Sirius hates Narcissa and Bellatrix, and the sun can't quite reach him...


Sun Bleached  
  
The summer sun threatened to come in through the window, but Sirius Black paid it no heed. The sun had been threatening to shine on him for years, and always stopped just short of actually doing so. Sirius had entertained himself as a boy, wondering if the sun was afraid of shining on him, and the various other members of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black.   
  
He smirked and rolled over on his soft, fluffy bed. It would not surprise him; surely if the sun had survived as long as he had, he knew better than to come where he was not wanted. He stayed out of the Artic, didn't he? And he stayed away from the family Black.   
  
Sometimes Sirius identified with the sun. Like the sun, he was shunned from the inner circle of the ancient pure bloods. And like the sun, he knew where he was not wanted. His parents had given up on wanting him years ago. He had a few uncles and a cousin who kind of wanted him, but not really. Not enough to take him in—besides, Cousin Andromeda was still dependent on her parents. She could not take in an unruly, wild teenager.   
  
Speaking of cousins, weren't his…  
  
"Sirius! Sirius, open up the stupid door!"  
  
Sirius quietly swore as he rolled over and off his bed. He would be perfectly content to just sit in his room all day, basking in the bleak sunlight. And everyone else would be happy that way, too. Nothing good could come of visiting with the cousins who came for two weeks every summer.   
  
Especially not if his moronic brother broke down his door with all of his constant banging…  
  
"All right, shut up!" Sirius hissed, flinging the door open. He heard a satisfying 'thunk!' as his younger brother hit the ground.   
  
Regulus glared with all the ferocity the Blacks could command. "Mother's going to kill you for that," he taunted gleefully. "If Bella and Cissy don't do it first…"   
  
"Like I'm afraid of a pair of girls," he laughed. Bellatrix was a fairly powerful, ruthless girl with a taste for duels and fights. But Narcissa, Cissy to the family, was an elegant lady, her mother's darling.   
  
Cissy was nothing but a bargaining chip for his uncle and aunt, Sirius knew. Cissy, pretty Cissy, with her blonde hair and glittery eyes, her sharp wit and her pure blood, was their ticket to an alliance with an even richer, more powerful family than their own.   
  
Sirius would have dearly loved for his pretty cousin to fall head over her hopeless heels in love with a Muggle-born wizard. Or better yet, a pure Muggle. It would be a deliciously cruel irony to inflict on his aunt and uncle, which they would surely share with his foolish parents.  
  
Groaning and dusting off his robes, Regulus had stood, and was right next to Sirius. He had to take two steps to match Sirius's one, and was trying his best to keep up and taunt his older brother.  
  
"I heard Bella has a boyfriend," he commented.  
  
"Lovely," Sirius muttered. "How pure's his blood? If it isn't, you know Aunt and Uncle will murder him before he comes near Bellatrix."   
  
And if anyone other than a pureblood showed interest in her, Bellatrix would probably kill him herself, Sirius noted dryly. Bellatrix was fanatic about her pure blood. She refused to speak with anyone who could not produce a perfect pedigree, back through at least ten generations.   
  
"His name's Lestrange, that's all I know," Regulus said. "Think he's already out of school; he was trying to graduate early."   
  
"Hates ol' Dumbledore that much?" Sirius was impressed. His family was not supportive of the old man, like most of the older families. He personally liked the guy, if only because his parents hated him and all his policies. Sirius firmly believed that anyone who could piss his parents off worse than he could was officially okay.  
  
Sirius shook the thoughts of school out of his head. More proof of Regulus's goody-two-shoes status: bringing up school on vacation.  
  
One of them had to be adopted. No other way.   
  
"Besides," he interjected, mainly to shut his brother up, "The only one who's love-life is any interest to me is Cissy."   
  
"Oh, I heard Father and Mother talking about how Cissy's been getting owls from one of the Malfoy clan."  
  
Aunt and Uncle's prayers were going to be answered. Damn.   
  
"Well, that's a lot of gold for Cissy's blonde hair," he muttered. Malfoy. It was an old, purely wizarding name. Not like Smith or anything, no one who was not a wizard had that name. The Malfoys had the purest blood imaginable, a fact that must have blown Cissy away when one began showing interest in her.   
  
"His pedigree alone would be worth millions," Regulus commented. "Just if it was printed on dry old parchment, not like the Mother's tapestry."  
  
"Regulus, shut up," Sirius snapped as they stepped into the main room… where the tapestry hung and the cousins waited.   
  
"Sirius!" Mother Black snapped. "Don't ever say that to your brother again!"   
  
Sirius rolled his eyes. Always caught.  
  
Cousin Andromeda caught his eye, and nodded sympathetically. Andromeda was the Sirius of her home; Narcissa was the family's darling and Bellatrix was their pride. But Andromeda was the ugly duckling; she didn't have Bella's wild good looks or Cissy's delicate beauty. She didn't have Bella's strength or Cissy's wit.   
  
She was just Andromeda; nothing more, nothing less.   
  
Sirius moved over to her, ignoring Bellatrix and his father discussing some of the more powerful curses, and Narcissa and her mother's conversation about the virtuous purity of Malfoy blood… ugh, he needed to talk to the one sane member of his family left alive, and he needed to do it now…   
  
Andromeda greeted him with a friendly kiss on the cheek, and a gentle smile. Pure Andromeda; no other member of the family smiled so gently. Blacks didn't smile, they smirked.   
  
Odd ones out, Sirius and Andromeda.  
  
Sirius gave her a quick, one-armed hug and dragged her back upstairs to his bedroom. Her sanity could balance him out. Maybe he could actually enjoy the cousins' visit, this time, if he tried.   
  
Maybe Andromeda would help attract the sun.   
  
Maybe if the two of them tried, they could escape all of this pureblood mania. Maybe Andromeda and Sirius could get out in the sun-drenched world, where the light bleached everything to the purest white. Maybe they could welcome the sun back into their family of stars.   
  
Maybe. 


End file.
